Dear Ed,
I recently had a falling out with my close friend over whether or not I should go to the same college as them. They of course want me to go with them, but my dream college is MIT? And theirs‘s Harvard. I personally feel like they are being too clingy. Our friendship will last an 18-minute walk apart? How is this a big deal? Should I throw away my dream for theirs? I got into both, but I really already planned out my whole future around MIT, not Harvard. I know they’re both great. but I really prefer MIT. (as a fun reason, I grew up with Spider-Man being my favorite character and that’s his dream school)
Sincerely, College Bound Smartie
Hello College Bound Smartie,
May I first say that you and your friend seem so smart, getting into MIT AND HARVARD? With my googling that means your friend registered to Harvard at 15 to be considered! Seriously, with all of those brains, you would think they would know that that short of a walk is nothing compared to the pain of being without each other, if you have a car it’s 5 minutes! (or a bike is at the same time) Or 0.9 miles, won’t cost much on gas even in today’s 5+ dollar gallon costs unless you have a gas guzzler. Both have a 4 to 4.1 percent acceptance rate!! Seriously, unless your friend has something against the tiniest of walks, they’re seriously in the same city… Cambridge, MA. You two could probably live together and still be able to get to your schools easily, why not move in together after your Freshman year at your schools? If you are focusing on yearly income, you will be rolling in the dough as the average yearly income of a student who graduated from MIT is $111,222 and that is just undergraduate! You should make a slideshow explaining how you can both get what you want AND still be friends. Further still, I wish you well in your ventures. And according to Google, you will probably be working at Microsoft if you graduate from there. I know i’m sounding alot like J. Jonah Jameson, but this isn’t what we’re looking for Parker! Go get pictures of Spider Man, go incriminate him. But in all seriousness please go live Peter Parkers dream and become the smartest MIT student and still have your friend by your side.
– Ed